Erica Sakurazawa

Between 2003 and 2004, Tokyopop published six manga by Erica Sakurazawa, some of the very first josei manga to be released in English. More than a decade later josei has still yet to establish a firm foothold in North America, though things seem to be improving and publishers continue to make an effort. Most of the josei that I have read I have thoroughly enjoyed. I wish that there was more available in English, but in the meantime I make the point to support what is currently available and to track down those titles, like Sakurazawa's, that have gone out of print. The first of Sakurazawa's manga to be translated was Between the Sheets, which was originally published in Japan in 1996. The volume was not my introduction to her work but out of all of Sakurazawa's manga that I have so far read, I feel that it is one of the strongest in terms of storytelling. Between the Sheets was initially brought to my attention due to the elements of same-sex desire that play a critical role in the manga's story.

Minako and Saki are extraordinarily close friends. They frequently hang out together, enjoying the bars and party scene where Saki, despite having a boyfriend, is constantly on the lookout for men. But when Saki and Minako share a drunken kiss in order to convince an undesirable suitor that they're a couple and to leave them alone, Minako finds her feelings for her best friend beginning to change. Minako had always admired and cared deeply for Saki, but now her love has turned obsessive. She wants to be with Saki. In some ways she wants to be Saki. Saki views Minako as an extremely important person in her life but nothing more than a friend while Minako wants to be everything for Saki: her lover, her protector, her one and only. Convinced she knows what's best for Saki, Minako will do anything to get closer to her and to drive others away, including sleeping with Saki's boyfriends.

Frankly, Between the Sheets is an exceptionally disturbing and even horrifying work. Minako's obsession with Saki creates an ominous and foreboding atmosphere. Each turn of the page seems as though it could reveal some sort of horrible tragedy worse than what has already occurred. Minako's feelings become self-destructive and her way of dealing with them hurt not only herself but Saki and the men in their lives as well. Often in fiction and romance one person's utter devotion to another is held as an ideal. However, Between the Sheets takes a much more realistic approach to this sort of extreme, obsessive desire. Minako's fixation on Saki becomes all-consuming. It's not flattering and it's not romantic. In fact, it can hardly even be called love anymore. Her friendship with Saki has evolved into something much darker and much more dangerous. The damage done may be irreparable.

Because of its subject matter Between the Sheets can be a tough and uncomfortable read; it is not at all a feel-good story and there is very little happiness to be found. The characters are entangled in a web of lies, cheating, and betrayal. Unpleasant emotions like hatred, anger, and jealously overshadow those of adoration, love, and affection. However, Sakurazawa handles the intensity of those feelings in a believable way. That realism is probably one of the reasons that Between the Sheets is so troubling. Minako appears to be normal and innocent, her twisted way of thinking hidden safely from view. Sakurazawa's artwork reflects this--on the surface nothing seems amiss. If readers weren't privy to Minako's inner thoughts, they might never suspect the unhealthiness of her state of mind. But eventually her actions and their tragic consequences cannot be ignored and make it quite clear to everyone involved how unbalanced she has become.

Experiments in Manga… (meer)

This volume was composed of four stories, one of which took up half the volume and three of which were shorter. The first story was related to Sakurazawa's Angel and was actually fairly decent. It gave me hope for the volume as a whole. Unfortunately, the final three stories all turned out to be utterly pointless. I'll deal with each of them individually in my review.

I have to say, so far I'm not really that impressed with Sakurazawa's works. I'm also not impressed with Yuki Nakamura's translation work, which was a bit clunky in both this volume and in Angel.

“Angel Nest”

(This story wasn't actually given a title in the table of contents, so I'll just give it the volume title.)

Natsu is a career woman who works a lot and whose marriage is on the rocks because of this – her husband, Ken, keeps asking her if she's really working late or if she's having an affair. She gets an opportunity to go home early, which is when she discovers that her husband's questions were actually a confession of sorts. Ken asks for a divorce and moves out. Natsu thinks that's the end of it, until Emi, Ken's lover, asks to stay with her because Ken is behaving like a clingy stalker. Both Natsu and Emi can see the gin-loving angel that recently moved in with Natsu, so Natsu caves and lets Emi move in. Surprisingly, Emi turns out to be a really good roomie and is more complex than Natsu originally realized.

I initially assumed this was Natsu's story, but it was actually very much Emi's. The revelations about Emi, her real reason for moving in with Natsu, and her eventual decision to become a more independent person were interesting, although the story was structured somewhat confusingly. I felt a bit let down that Sakurazawa didn't show us how Emi was doing after she left, and instead chose to end the story with Natsu.

I should mention that this is the only story in the volume with the angel in it.

“God Only Knows”

Tobio, a shallow and judgmental gay guy, wants to hook up with a new hottie, but his regular gay bar is filled with ugly guys. Tobio drags his straight friend Haru to another bar and, when he doesn't immediately find someone for himself, decides to be Haru's wingman. Although Sakiko and Haru go their separate ways, Haru later rescues her from potentially being raped. Haru, Tobio, and Sakiko have a nice night out, during which Sakiko reveals her reasons for trying to hook up with a guy, any guy, even though that wasn't really what she wanted.

Okay, this was just dumb, and I was horrified when I learned more about Sakiko and her motivations (spoiler:she's younger than she looks).Haru and Tobio should have been, too. There wasn't much point to this story, aside from the advice Haru gave Sakiko, which amounted to “Sex with someone you love is better than sex with strangers.”

Also, I disliked Tobio. He was incredibly immature and shallow, and it seemed like the only reason he and Haru were still friends was because Haru was a follower, sucked in by Tobio's stronger personality.

“Tea Time”

Taeko was supposed to go on vacation with her boyfriend of eight years, but he bowed out, saying he had to be at work. She knows that he has another girlfriend, but, even so, she keeps asking him to come join her anyway. Meanwhile, Kenny, Taeko's tour guide, is very nice and even comforts her when a phone call with her boyfriend leaves her in tears.

If anything, this was even worse than “God Only Knows.” It was so. Very. Depressing. I could see nothing but heartache in Taeko's future.

I cringed when Kenny kissed (and slept with?) Taeko while she was still upset about her boyfriend. On the one hand, it struck me as taking advantage of her. On the other hand, Kenny seemed nice enough that I both feared he'd get sucked into Taeko's relationship mess and wanted Taeko to ditch her boyfriend for him.

Had this story ended with some hint of forward movement on Taeko's part, I might have liked it more. As it was, it just depressed me.

“A Gift from the Heavens”

Shuji, a 19-year-old guy bummed about having no money, no car, and no girlfriend, sees a guy leave his car with the engine still running and decides, on the spur of the moment, to take the car. He later realizes that there's a woman in the back, and the two of them get to talking, role-play as two lovers eloping because their parents didn’t approve of them being together, and generally have a nice night out.

There was so much pointlessness in this volume, and “A Gift from the Heavens” only continued that trend. It's literally just the story of two people meeting and connecting via the adrenaline of doing something fun and illegal. The artwork was nice – I love Sakurazawa's curly-haired heroine designs – but that was about it.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (meer)

Well, this was a letdown. I was expecting something a bit...more. More interesting, more depth, more emotion, just more.

This manga starts off with Kato, an ordinary young man who works as a convenience store clerk. He also happens to be living with a mysterious, mute angel who doesn't eat and who only drinks gin and lime. She's not technically his girlfriend, but she occasionally kisses him, so he kind of thinks of her that way. Whenever she kisses him, he grows wings. No one else can see her, or his wings.

No one, that is, except for a small number of people who need the angel for one reason or another. One of those people is Mizuho, a 14-year-old girl who has recently become the victim of bullying and who is considering suicide. Another is Chi, a little girl who is being neglected by her mother.

Mizuho's story didn't really affect me much, emotionally. Which feels like an awful thing to say. She was depressed, she felt disconnected from her mother, and she stood by and watched others bully a girl until she became a victim of bullying herself. The whole thing was so brief, from the start of the bullying to the resolution (which basically boiled down to “don't let what the bullies say about you bother you”) and Mizuho making new friends, that I just couldn't bring myself to care. The angel's “help” mostly involved just existing. She distracted Mizuho just enough for her to be jolted out of her funk, and that was that.

Chi's story had a little more emotional impact. The overall simplistic feel of the volume worked better during her part, I think, because she was just a child. She mostly focused on her life as it was – missing her father, wondering why her mother drank so much if it always made her sick, trying to be good so that her mother wouldn't become any unhappier, and wanting to play with the angel she'd seen while at the convenience store. It was a sucky situation all around. Chi's mom wasn't sure she'd wanted a child in the first place, and she certainly hadn't wanted to raise one on her own. At the same time, her pride won't allow her to go back to her parents, who kicked her out after she got pregnant, or ask her next door neighbor for help. Unfortunately, this story was resolved just as easily and simply as Mizuho's. Literally all the angel had to do was be there and be seen for things to change for the better.

Every time the angel was off seeing other people, Kato was left alone. During one of the angel's longer absences, Kato developed a crush on Miho, the woman on the cover with the gorgeous curly hair. Again, I couldn't really connect with the characters or story. It ended very abruptly. At least this part had Miho's amazing hair and Boo, her cat.

All in all, this manga wasn't exactly bad, but it wasn't good either. The angel somehow changed people's lives for the better just by being around and occasionally hugging and kissing people, and I still don't understand why Kato grew wings whenever the angel kissed him.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (meer)